Diana Clement is a freelance journalist who has written a column for the Herald since 2004. Before that, she was personal finance editor for the Sunday Business (now The Business) newspaper in London.
The Pavlova Paradise dream is changing. If you can downsize your life, you'll be wealthier in more than just money.
Back in the day, New Zealanders dreamed of owning their own quarter-acre of paradise and a good solid home to go on it. Over the years that's grown to includemore bathrooms, a guest room, media room, rumpus room, internal access garage and so on. Great if you can afford it. If not, or you'd like to free yourself from constant money worries, then you can downsize your life and environmental footprint. You'll soon have disposable income as a by-product.
Downsize your home
The most obvious place to start downsizing your life is with your castle. A smaller home in your same suburb will invariably cost less in mortgage or rent, than the super-sized ones. People who downsize very often enjoy their new life. Of course, this doesn't apply to those who by necessity are packing the family into a small home.
Are you a closet hoarder? Unless you're one of the true minimalists then chances are you have a lot of stuff in your home that doesn't get used. It probably needs cleaning and/or storing and that means more rooms. The trouble is our ancestors hoarded food and belongings to stay alive. In the modern world we buy stuff, driven by our survival instinct. Buying things to meet this urge costs money and eats time. Clutter comes in many forms. Even the second car could be clutter if you could find a way to live without it. It could well be eating 10 to 15 per cent of your take home pay or more. Sell your excess items if you can, but at least try to rehome the usable stuff. Deciding what to keep and what to chuck can be difficult. But there are methods out there. My mantra is "do I use it?" and "is it beautiful?" Even then you can't keep everything.
Reuse, reduce, recycle paper
Some financial paperwork you must keep for a fixed time, such as seven years for the Inland Revenue Department. Other paper clutters your head and life. It's best to handle paper once. If you must keep it, write notes on it and file. If you need to reply but don't need to keep it, write your reply on that paper, and send it. If you need to keep it, can you scan? Or is there a copy saved online so you don't need the original?
Paper clutters your head and life. Photo / 123RF
Streamline your finances
The mess that is our finances can be made much simpler. If you can rationalise small or time-consuming accounts, do. Beware, of course, of not putting all your eggs in one basket. Pay everything you can by direct debit or automatic payment to reduce regular tasks. If you're someone who is prone to overdrawing your account create diary notes to check your accounts at the lean end of the pay period. If you can automate your savings at the beginning of the month as well, you're going to find yourself better off.
Cancel services
Now take a good look at your last three months of banks statements and see if there are any services you can cancel. Do you really need that landline? Gym membership? Or ongoing app subscription? Can you at least choose a cheaper plan or discounts?
If you are going to downsize your life, create a plan. Make lists with actions and dates beside them. If you don't know where to start take a list of everything that has to be done and find an easy task to tick off first to motivate yourself. It might just be going through one drawer of clothing, or one pile of paper, or creating a new filing system. These days there is a labour-saving app for most things.
